I have made a ton of progress(Have had 2 snow days and a half day of work today), but I may be reaching a point where I don’t want to continue. I was able to summon help and my ash and beat the boss of the Capital, who actually was very tough solo, but not so bad non-solo. Less than 15 attempts, I’d say?
I also was able to grab the serpent spear and whammy kablammy the boss of Volcano Manor relatively easily.
This took me to the snowy area, though I had to look up how the heck to get to it. Another badly laid out path for me, though I may be terrible at maps?
Anyway, the snow area. I fought this evil bird that was a field boss and it took 20+ tries, but defeated it.
I reached the very long path that basically was just me riding out to where the Fire Giant is. Time to light some torch that will burn the Elden Tree open.
OK, so the Fire Giant. I have no hope, I can barely approach his legs. I am aware one of his legs is the weak spot, but I have died just trying to get up to him and when I do, my swings are pathetic. I have looked up and seen this is a required boss, no way to skip him.
I’m not sure if I’ll continue past this point, though I am sure I’m missing many wonderful things. I have to think about it.
I think I remember riding my horse at him then, when he does the snow wave with his shield, dismiss the horse and use the i-frames to avoid damage, closing the rest of the distance on foot.
He was one of my toughest bosses as well though. The biggest insult to injury was the hike back to him because they couldn’t put the respawn right by there.
I’ll also watch some videos of what to do. I can kind of get past the shield smash(which plows a bunch of snow up at you), but I can NOT get any real damage on the guy. I mean, a bit, but not enough to make a difference before I die.
Note: I have also played this game an absolute ton the past few weeks, I may be hitting some level of fatigue. I was doing really well and this snow area is, to no shock, another level of hard hitting. The Fire Giant, though, just slamming me.
That’s where I gave up on the game. I was playing as a spellcaster. Could do a ton of damage, but a real glass cannon. I relied on my ashes summons to tank. Greatshield Soldiers or one of the Banished Knights or Latenna. But in the case of the giant the ashes summon wouldn’t hold aggro and I just died horribly. Apparently Tiche would be better, but getting Tiche is a solo fight that I failed at a couple dozen times as well. I was already finding the game a grindy slog at that point, and didn’t see any point in continuing. I’ve never been very good at that sort of timing dodge/parry/riposte type combat, which was why I pursued the ranged dps-monster playstyle.
Yeah, the game is just very hard work. I’ve honestly really enjoyed it and I might keep going, but I kind of entered the whole thing with low confidence and am actually rather impressed with myself for going as far as I have at this point.
It’s exhausting sometimes.
I played 120 hours of Breath of the Wild in 2017 and did so wanting more and more. This game is more like work at times.
I watched a video that suggested staying on your horse and and attacking the legs. Having watched him do it, I went from not being able to get him below 80% to killing him a couple of tries later. I’m also using the mimic tear ashes, fully upgraded, although any suggestion that this makes any part of the game ‘trivial’ is laughable.
However, I am struggling with the next major challenge, the Godskin Duo.
I will watch some videos and give it another shot. I might just be mentally fatigued as well.
I did just see a neat video that showed something I was kind of surprised to learn:
You can see the big Torch(?) that you will eventually need to light(after the Fire Giant) right from the moment you walk out into Limgrave. I love little “Wow, they showed me that then!” type moments in games.
I’ll also re-bring up the potential to just install an Easy Mode mod and complete the game to see where the story (such as it is) goes, especially since it seems you’re like me and not terribly invested in the “2hard4u git gud” nature of the game. I didn’t use it until I had beaten the story but, frankly, it wouldn’t have changed my impressions any if I had.
Supports up to game version 1.08.1 according to the change log. Looks like it was last updated in December. I have no idea what version Elden Ring is currently at.
You will need to play in Offline mode (which is a feature, not a bug in my opinion). It shouldn’t affect your save files but making a backup beforehand is always advisable. Using it was as easy as backing up the original .bin file it changes then dropping in the modded file and renaming it to the original .bin. Changing it back was just renaming the mod file and restoring the original .bin.
Don’t give up - you’re doing great, but a break to recharge sounds sensible. Fire giant is really tough at first, just a massive hp pool.
Here’s me walloping him with a poison / bleed weapon - works well for this fight:
It’s really about the first phase - second phase is just patience (horse essential imho). But first phase you have to get on his leg and dodge some moves. The snow wave and foot raise are gifts, but others are harder because you don’t get a great field of view.
Not panicking with his fire spread first phase was an important learning step for me, you can find a safe place to stand.
Another note for Fire Giant. There is the possibility of summoning Alexander (the giant Pot), and he’s great at holding aggro. Unfortunately, the boss is so big that it can be hard to decipher what attack is coming before he wallops you.
I didn’t do everything, or even most things - I didn’t finish Volcano Manor, nor did I go and see Milenia, and I abandoned Castle Sol before getting to Commander Niall. But I did do all of Ranni’s storyline, and got the Age of the Stars ending (which I didn’t understand, but so it goes), and I have beaten the game.
I have yet to return other than a couple more attemps on the Fire Giant.
50+ hours has been a good experience for me. I’m not confidant I will return to beat him. I know I can imitate a video of another player winning and eventually get passed him.
I…I…do want to finish it, but I think I just don’t have the mental energy at this point. My save will always be there if I return.
I had a lot of fun despite me not making it further than the Giant. I do have some thoughts about the game, kind of a review and critique I’ll share another time.
Playing as a sorcerer who was fairly underpowered on the melee front, it’s those stupid skeletons that just come apart instead of dying so they come back to life unless you hit them again. If you’re trying to work from a distance you either have to run up and hit them or waste a spell, and you can’t auto-lock until it’s coming back together so the timing is a pain in the ass.
One thing that didn’t occur to me (but should have) playing this build (Int 70, str/dex 18) is that there are melee weapons that scale with intelligence. Moonveil and the Dark Moon Greatsword are two really good ones. Level those suckers up with Hewg and it’s a whole new ballgame, melee-wise.
It’s weird to me that the cat head helmet I got from an imp fairly early on remains the best helmet in the game. I’ve only found a couple that are better across the board, and they’re too heavy for me to wear.
Alecto, Black Knife Ringleader (in the Evergaol in the Moonlight Altar area) took longer than I care to think about to get past, but she’s worth it because the Black Knife Tiche ashes she drops kick some ass.
I have reached the final boss (Radagon/Elden Beast) but just kept getting waxed like a pole dancer’s taint. The other two bosses I just haven’t been able to get past are Malenia (I can finally get through Phase 1 most of the time, but without much left for Phase 2) and the Dragonlord Placidusax (which, admittedly, I only tried a few times).
Rather than get frustrated with the bosses I’m going back around to previous bosses I gave up on (most of whom are trivial at this point) and exploring spots on the map I missed before. I’m surprised at how much I didn’t find on the initial playthrough, and how much I’m coming up with now without even looking at an online map or checklist.
I was Strength build, but I didn’t really struggle with Radagon, Elden Beast as much as I thought I might. It took a few goes, but my struggle with the Elden Beast was getting close enough to it to hit it.
